Covid-19 ground routine cancer screening and risk assessments to a halt. As a result, many programs are concerned about delayed detection of cancers, which could be exacerbated over the next few months by patients' reluctance to come into health care facilities. Dignity Health has leveraged their virtual genetic counseling services and long-standing partnership with CancerIQ, a genetic cancer risk assessment platform, to continue screening patients for their genetic risk of cancer—a strategy that not only supports patients during the Covid-19 pandemic but will continue to maximize staff efficiencies as "non-essential" services ramp back up.

Welcome to "Field Report," a new series where Advisory Board experts weigh in on what they are hearing from health care organizations across the county. In this edition, Deirdre Saulet shares findings from recent networking forums with cancer program leaders across the country on what their "new normal" looks like.

The novel coronavirus pandemic drove cancer programs to put in place operational and clinical changes to manage their patients' risk of exposure to Covid-19—but little is known about the patient perspective. How comfortable are patients with their care team’s decisions surrounding the pandemic, and are they satisfied with cancer program's communication in a time of so much uncertainty?

Although adolescent and young adult cancer patients (AYAs) are a quickly growing population, few of the cancer programs we spoke to said they're investing in survivorship and follow-up care for this particular demographic—a dearth of support that could affect your organization's ability to attract and retain AYA patients for their cancer care.

We know that cancer programs want to do all they can to support cancer patients, but they face considerable tradeoffs when prioritizing an array of services for development. The 2019 Trending Now in Cancer Care Survey, conducted jointly with the Association of Community Cancer Centers, offered us a glimpse into cancer programs' priorities for the coming year—and allowed us to identify potential missed opportunities.

Welcome to "Field Report," a new series where Advisory Board experts weigh in on what they are hearing from health care organizations across the county. In this edition, Deirdre Saulet shares findings from a recent survey and conversations with cancer programs across the country on how they're responding to Covid-19 and what concerns them most in the coming months.

In our 2019 Trending Now in Cancer Care survey, conducted jointly with the Association of Community Cancer Centers, we asked over 140 respondents representing 126 cancer programs and independent practices about their methods to secure financial stability, threats to cancer program growth, and value-based care. Read on to learn what we found out from respondents before the Covid-19 crisis unfolded.

Welcome to "Field Report," a new series where Advisory Board experts weigh in on what they are hearing from health care organizations across the county. In this edition, Deirdre Saulet explores how cancer programs across the country are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.

COVID-19 is officially a global pandemic, and, in the United States, public health officials are focused on "flattening the curve." But not everyone can self-quarantine, especially those currently receiving cancer treatment. So it's especially important for cancer programs to ensure the safety of immunocompromised patients. While all health systems have emergency preparedness capabilities, such as command centers, we're seeing cancer centers develop their own working groups within those structures to focus specifically on oncology care and research.